Last night I started thinking about how long it took for me to say that my blog was a success.  It actually took me quite a bit of time.  I started my blog over 3 years ago, and it wasn’t until the end of last year when I considered my blog to have taken off.  Success is defined differently for every blogger, but there is some things that I have discovered that has led to my blogs success and I will be sharing them with you today.

5 Reasons Why Your Blog Is Not Succeeding

You blog about too many topics

I love so many things, I am very passionate about design, fitness, cooking, family and helping others but one blog is just not going to cut it.  I was never looking to start a lifestyle blog, and I realized that my blog needed to have some kind of direction or I was going to alienate my readers.  I didn’t realize this until one year after starting my blog that my husband asked me what my blog was about and I didn’t know what to say.  That same night I asked myself the same question and came up with the conclusion that I needed to find myself a topic and stick to it.  Although I offer printables for teachers, brides, businesses, moms, students, etc., I am a graphic designer and have vast knowledge in Illustrator, Photoshop and other Adobe products.  My blog has since then transitioned from offering recipes every now and then and family posts, to offering information, educating and becoming a resource for businesses small and large in graphic design, social media, business & blogging.  I stuck to it, and my readers began to flood in.

When I search around the blogosphere for blogs to follow, I am usually sucked in to blogs that focus on a certain topic as well and not so much a blog that is all over the place.  Some of my favorites include:

Simply Sona – Beauty Blogger

The Body Department – Health & Wellness Blog

Tiny Buddha – Personal Development

Type Wolf – A font lovers dream!

Sweet Paper Trail – Design, Blogging & Business Blog < <

Blogging Inconsistency Infrequently

Blogging once in a while is not going to kill your blog.  With that said it is not going to build a following either.  When you blog in a consistent matter, your readers become followers.  They know that you update your page, they see the energy and commitment you have to your blog, and that you take it seriously.  The more blog posts you have on a topic, the more your page builds credibility as well.  Having a series or posting the same day every week gives your readers something to look forward to.  Building a successful blog is a commitment, so whether it’s once a week or 5 times a week, plan it and see it thru.

You write for the wrong reasons

This is one of the biggest turn offs for me when it comes to reading someones blog.  You will find many bloggers that write strictly for SEO (search engine optimization) purposes, quantity or word count.  It is the most stale thing you could ever read.  When you write a post, no matter the topic, think quality of quantity.  Your readers will thank you for it.

You don’t use plain english

I will not be winning a literary award any time soon, and I am not aiming to either.  I am here to inform and educate, hopefully provide useful information that I have picked up on my blogging journey.  I find that many bloggers pull out their thesaurus and bombard their posts with words that they probably wouldn’t recognize if they did not search for them.  Although I believe using enticing words that make you sound more professional and or interesting is great, I believe that most people just want to be able to read your posts and understand what they are reading.

Try reading your posts out loud to a friend or even yourself.  Does it sound conversational?  Does it sound stuffy and uptight?

Post titles are catchy but not effective

Post titles are very important.  They are the reason that you have a reader at your post.  It pulled them in. Things quickly turn sour when they realize that your post title has nothing to do with what your post is actually about.  This kind of title is called click-bait.  You read these all the time and I hate them!  It is a real quick way to turn your reader away.

Design

I did not count this as one of the reasons why your blog may not be succeeding but it may definitely play a large roll in turning people away from your blog.  I will be going into deeper discussion regarding the design of your blog in a future post, there is just too many details in your design that need to be addressed.

Now that you have an idea of why your readers may be quickly to leave your blog, will you be changing anything you are currently doing?  Are you guilty of any of these infractions? Get personal below!

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